S.F. foot patrols fall short in evaluation

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Photo: Mike Kepka, San Francisco Chronicle

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murder079_mk.JPG San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi talks to the media about yet another murder in his district as San Francisco Police Officers investigate a shooting that killed Antoine "Slim" Green on McAllister Street near Webster Street in San Francisco, CA on Friday June 2, 2006. Mike Kepka / The Chronicle less

murder079_mk.JPG San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi talks to the media about yet another murder in his district as San Francisco Police Officers investigate a shooting that killed Antoine "Slim" Green on ... more

The report, released Tuesday, did give police high marks for having more officers walking the street, noting that foot patrols doubled in the first six months of 2007 - from 44,713 man hours to 83,475 man hours.

As a result, the report said, city residents felt safer.

But the analysis, prepared by Public Safety Strategies Group, a Massachusetts consulting company, faulted the Police Department for lax administration of the program and for inadequate and "antiquated" record-keeping of the patrols.

That made it impossible to analyze the effectiveness of the program - and whether crime decreased or increased because of the foot patrols.

"The SFPD does not have clearly defined goals and objectives, performance measures and accountability controls in place for effective management of foot patrols," the report said.

The evaluation is the first formal assessment of the department's foot-patrol program, implemented in January 2007 for a one-year trial period that continues.

Led by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the Board of Supervisors imposed the foot patrols in an effort to reduce crime. The foot-patrol requirement - passed over the objections of Mayor Gavin Newsom, who said police should decide - mandates that eight of San Francisco's 10 police districts have officers walking a beat. Each of the eight districts has a foot patrol on the street an average of 20 man-hours a day.

Tuesday's report indicated that a majority of the public likes the program, as does a majority of officers.

"The report validates everything we believed going into this pilot, which is that the public overwhelmingly wants foot patrols, but it also underscores the inflexibility of the Police Department to actually activate it," Mirkarimi said.

Police Chief Heather Fong had opposed the supervisors' mandate, and her spokesman, Steven Mannina, said Tuesday that the department did not have an immediate comment about the report.

To staff the foot patrols, police did not have to decrease the number of officers in patrol cars, but police statistics didn't reveal exactly how this was accomplished, the report said. The department doesn't have maps that detail where the increased foot patrols are, and - because of poor records - "was not able to provide the total number of department members by assignment, functional title, job function, speciality unit or district," according to the report.

Still, the evaluation praised the police for making "significant efforts" to comply with the Board of Supervisors' legislation by boosting the number of foot patrols.

Corina Monzon, project manager with the San Francisco controller's office who closely followed the evaluation, said the report has as much positive news as negative news.

"The Police Department did reach a high level of compliance on the staffing side," she said, adding that the most significant issue was that the department couldn't evaluate "what the impact was on crime."

The Public Safety Strategies Group will present its findings at 6 p.m. next Wednesday in the Board of Supervisors chambers.